Anyone who is interested in growing houseleeks will almost
certainly have come across the name of David Ford. Over a period
of 30 years from the late 1960's until the early 1990's David
produced and named a large number of beautiful Sempervivum
and Jovibarba cultivars. Many of these are now widely distributed
and greatly appreciated by those who grow them.

It was with great sadness that I heard that David had died
on 10th August 1999.

I first met him in 1980, a few years after I became seriously
interested in sempervivums. I had found his address in the Sempervivum
Society Membership List so I wrote asking if I could visit him
to see his collection. As a result of his reply I made the first
of many visits to his home.

I never knew much of David's personal life apart from the few
things he mentioned in conversation in between talking about sempervivums.
By 1980 I think he was already retired and I seem to remember
him saying that he had been a carpenter or decorator by trade.
He did not appear to have any family and I remember him saying
that he had lived in his house all of his life. His interest in
sempervivums began when he was a young boy and lasted throughout
his life.

Almost all of his small back garden was set out with staging
on which his sempervivum collection was arranged. He even had
trays of plants growing on his shed roof, and a step-ladder available
if you wanted to see them. Initially he had tubular metal frames
fitted to each row of staging which allowed him to cover the plants
with polythene sheets during the wettest winter weather. These
were later abandoned without any adverse effects on the plants.

David Ford and his garden

The sempervivums were grown in 3" round plastic pots and
he had single pots of each variety arranged in alphabetical order.
When I first visited he had his whole collection colour coded
to show which were British, American and European cultivars. There
were also sections for Sempervivum species and for Jovibarba
species and cultivars.

A small part of the cultivar collection

In his shed he had a potting bench and a large rack containing
hundreds of labels. He made many of these labels by cutting them
out of plastic containers. He also had a supply of old Venetian
blinds which he cut up for labels. These were painted with the
correct colour code prior to having the name of the plant written
on them. He told me that he liked to spend his winter evenings
preparing labels for the following year.

A railway line ran past the end of his garden so every few
minutes a train would pass and for a few seconds conversation
would be impossible.

Although David never sold plants as a business he always had
large numbers of offsets potted up in small square pots for sale
to callers. In 1980 he was charging 15P each for these and the
price remained the same until he had to stop in the mid 1990's.
In addition to his own raised cultivars he had large numbers of
varieties which he had received from sempervivum enthusiasts in
other parts the world. In particular, he had many beautiful cultivars
which had been raised by Ed Skrocki in the USA.

Plants for sale at 15P each

I visited David once or twice a year for many years and he
was always very welcoming. I would arrive at his small terraced
house to find that he had placed trestles in the road outside
to reserve a parking space. There was a sign on his door bell
saying "Please ring hard" because he was partially deaf.
A visit usually lasted for several hours and most of this time
was spent looking at his collection and selecting plants from
the sales benches to take home. After a while David would make
a pot of tea and we would sit down in his living room and talk
about sempervivums. He invariably had a large plate of sandwiches
and a selection of cakes for us to eat..

Communication was not easy because of his deafness but with
his life-long experience of growing sempervivums it was always
interesting to talk to him. He obviously loved his plants but
he was always modest about his new introductions and never had
an unkind word to say about anyone. After every visit I would
go home with dozens of new plants to add to my collection.

At the time of my last visit in 1996 I was sad to see that
his collection was showing signs of deterioration. I believe his
eyesight was failing and he was finding it increasingly difficult
to keep the collection in the condition it was in the past. He
told me that a neighbour's dog had got into the garden and done
a lot of damage. I don't know how old David was but I would guess
he was well into his 80's (Probably 88 - according to C. Versteeg, Netherland) and I think that with his failing health
and deteriorating sight this may well have been too great a problem
to get over.

I next heard that he had gone completely blind and had passed
what little remained of his collection to Alan Smith in Kent.
Some time later I wrote to David in the hopes that who ever was
looking after him would be able to read the letter to him but
in reply I had a letter from one of his neighbours to say that
he had died a few weeks before.

The beautiful cultivars which David produced will be a lasting
memorial to him and as a friend he will be remembered with great
affection.